


Monstrosity

by ofcorsetstrash



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Borderline Personality Disorder, Claustrophobia, Dark, Dissociation, Gen, Horror, Insanity, Isolation, Kylo Ren Has Issues, Murder, Nyctophobia, Post-Movie(s), Psychological Horror, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-02
Updated: 2016-04-02
Packaged: 2018-05-30 19:13:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6436879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ofcorsetstrash/pseuds/ofcorsetstrash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hux pulled Kylo Ren from the surface of Starkiller and whisked him away to safety. At least... it looked like Kylo Ren.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Monstrosity

**Author's Note:**

> Don't read this. Some doors are best left unopened.
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> therewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoortherewasadoorthere  
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> So. You choose to continue. That is significant. Just remember that you opened the door.

Ren’s eyes fluttered open.

 

“Finally awake, are you?” Hux muttered. “Good. I’ve got other things to do than make sure you don’t die in your sleep.”

 

“Hurts…”

 

“I imagine it does.”

 

Ren’s eyes were foggy, unfocused, probably from all the medications Hux had injected him with. “Where… “ he managed to mumble.

 

“You are safe enough,” said Hux. “We’re on a freighter with some other officers and on our way to the _Finalizer,_  from there to Snoke.”

 

But Ren had already fallen back asleep, it seemed, his breath evening out and his eyes closed once again.

 

That was just fine with Hux. He had better things to do, he told himself. There was little, really, he could do for Ren on the small ship. It was imperative that they rendezvous with the _Finalizer_ as soon as possible. Adjusting his gloves, Hux made his way to the cockpit. Two officers were at the controls. “Major,” said Hux. “Have we made contact with the _Finalizer?_ ”

 

Major Lupal stood and saluted. “Yes, sir,” she said. Finally some good news. Hux needed something positive to hold on to at the moment. “They have sent us their coordinates. We should be able to reach them in three hours.”

 

“Good,” said Hux. He disliked the heap of scrap metal they had been forced to make their escape on, some confiscated Republic freighter. It made him nervous to think of how easily Ren could destroy the entire thing if he woke up unhappy. Best to just keep him drugged for the next three hours.

 

Colonel Gaccli, seated in the pilot’s chair, grinned back at Hux. “It was a bit of a close call there for a while, wasn’t it, sir, on Starkiller?”

 

Hux frowned. Colonel Gaccli wasn’t usually the sort to be optimistic, or to speak so informally to someone of higher rank. Hux decided to let it go. He could see the man’s hands shaking on the controls. Some people simply reacted to stressful situations differently. And once they reached the _Finalizer,_  Hux could make sure this little band of officers was properly taken care of.

 

And Ren, of course. Though to be honest, Ren was considerably lower on Hux’s list of priorities than a great many other things.

 

Three hours didn’t sound like a long time, but the minutes were eating away at Hux ferociously. He found himself wandering the small ship, mapping it with his steps. It didn’t take very long before he knew the entire layout. One cockpit, four small cabins with two bunks each, one tiny ‘fresher, four cargo bays, two single-barrel laser cannon turrets. One single-tube ion drive engine, one 11P power generator. Emergency rations for one month. Limited medical supplies. Four officers who had managed to get on-board with Hux as he went to find Ren on the surface of Starkiller. One General Hux. One Kylo Ren.

 

Hux found himself walking past the door to where Ren lay for the fifth time in forty-five minutes. This time, however, he could hear movement within. Concerned with making sure the ship made it to safety in one piece, Hux opened the door.

 

Ren was sitting up, the blanket pooled around his waist. He was blinking, staring around the room with a slightly confused look. This should be fun, dealing with a sedated Knight. Hux glanced at the open med kit he’d left on the floor. It looked like there was enough there to put Ren back to sleep if needed.

 

Eventually, Ren’s eyes met his, more or less. Hux fought down a grimace. It was distasteful, seeing Ren like this. Not that Hux particularly _enjoyed_ the way Kylo Ren would barrel about with all the care of a rancor in a glass hallway, but seeing him so reduced felt… wrong. Hux had had to strip off Ren’s outer robes and layers to stop the worst of the bleeding, leaving Ren in only his undershirt and trousers. The burn on his face looked terrible, somehow even worse with the bacta gel on it, giving it a sickly, oozing soreness. His right shoulder seemed a mess, damaged muscle and tendons laid bare to the light. Hux hadn’t looked too closely at the wound in Ren’s side, only wrapping it in as many layers of gauze and bandages as he could. The white gauze was slowly starting to bloom with red.

 

“What… what happened?” Ren said, his voice a little bit slurred.

 

Hux crossed his arms and took a solid stance. “I saved your sorry hide, that’s what happened. You were going to die out there, and I found you and brought you on this ship.”

 

“Oh,” said Ren. “Thank you.”

 

Hux wondered for a moment if perhaps the drugs had been a little bit too much. Had the Master of the Knights of Ren actually just thanked him? Without being harassed or ordered to do so? Hux couldn’t help but ask, “How do you feel?”

 

“Like I got in a fight with a sarlacc.” Ren was looking down at himself as if cataloguing his injuries.

 

Hux hesitated. “And… the Force?”

 

Ren looked back up at him, his face alight with some emotion that Hux couldn’t place, but it made him look frightfully young. “Good. Yes. The Force. Good.” Ren shook his head as if trying to clear it. “Good. Good. I can feel it. The Force is… there…” Ren looked confused. “But… something’s different. It feels… different than before.”

 

“Right. Well, I’ll let you figure that out.” Hux glanced at the chronometer set in the wall. “We should arrive at the _Finalizer_ in two hours or so. Then we can get you some actual medical help. And then on to Supreme Leader Snoke.”

 

Ren had been looking around the room, taking in his surroundings. When Hux mentioned Snoke, however, he sat straight up as if struck by an electric current, his eyes wide and wild.

 

“You’re taking me to Snoke?” His face was pale, and he swayed with the effort of keeping himself upright.

 

Hux quirked an eyebrow. “As ordered. He said that it was time to finish your training, whatever that means.”

 

True fear flashed over Ren’s newly-disfigured features. Interesting.

 

Hux made his way to the door. “I suggest you rest and heal up quickly, Ren.”

 

“ _What_ did you just call me?”

 

Hux turned back to look at Ren. His voice had sounded… harsh. Desperate. Confused. Fury lit the man’s eyes. _There_ was the Ren Hux was used to dealing with.

 

“I called you ‘Ren’,” Hux said, his voice icy. “Like I always do. What did you think I said?” He turned his back on the man and opened the door. “Do _try_ to contain yourself. There isn’t much for you to destroy on this ship so if you could save your tantrums for a place not so fragile I would appreciate it.”

 

Five minutes later, Hux’s descent into true hell began.

 

The ship was quiet, the mood subdued. Starkiller’s destruction was weighing heavily on the morale of the few aboard. Hux was trying very hard not to let it get to him.

 

A shrill alarm sounded, echoing through the narrow hallways of the ship.

 

“Lieutenant!” Hux snapped. “What is going on?”

 

“General, sir,” said Lieutenant Sre. “We have a small problem with the engine. It looks like there’s a reactor leak. I can isolate it, I think.”

 

Hux nodded at “Do that.” Lieutenant Sre saluted, and she disappeared quickly towards the engine room.

 

Hux pressed the button near him to activate the ship-wide comm. Honestly, the ship was so small that he could probably be heard by everyone if he just raised his voice, but that seemed like a step towards incivility.

 

“Attention. I need Colonel Gaccli, Major Lupal, and Lieutenant Cles to meet me at the bri- cockpit.” Hux stormed down the short hallway to the cockpit to be greeted by a smiling Colonel Gaccli.

 

“I was already here, sir,” he said with a grin. At least his hands weren’t shaking as badly, Hux noted. The alarm stopped.

 

“That was starting to give me a headache.” That was Lieutenant Cles, rubbing at his forehead. What’s going on, General?”

 

And there came Major Lupal, her long legs carrying her swiftly to the corridor juncture. “General.” She snapped off a smart salute.

 

“At ease.” They were already beyond ‘at ease’, but some habits are hard to break. Hux continued. “There has been a small reactor leak in the engine. Lieutenant Sre has already gone to do what she can to fix it.”

 

It was easy to read the anxiety in Lieutenant Cles’ face. “Is there something you wish to say, Lieutenant?” asked Hux.

 

The Lieutenant winced. “I just wanted to ask, sir… How is… Lord Ren?”

 

Translation: How likely is it that an unstable Force-user will crumble this ship like thin foil before we reach safety? “Lord Ren is wounded but stable. He is resting and unlikely to do much of anything before we reach the _Finalizer._ ” Hux paused. “All of the sedatives in his system should make sure of that.” There was not quite an audible sigh of relief from the three officers, but it was a close call. Hux turned to Colonel Gaccli. “Colonel, I need you to open a transmission with the _Finalizer_. Let them know-”

 

The ship lurched. All four of them fell to the floor, the metal shuddering and shaking. The reinforced walls creaked, a deep, uncanny sound reverberating all around them.

 

“Is everyone alright?” Hux asked. And then the world went black.

 

No sound. No light. No perception of direction or orientation. And then Hux could hear the sound of Lieutenant Sre’s breathing speed up.

 

“Oh, _fuck,_ ” said Major Lupal.

 

Hux was inclined to agree.

 

The tiny ship had completely lost power. There was not a single spark working. The lights were gone. The air filtration system was quiet. Even the artificial gravity had vanished, leaving them suspended, drifting in the void. Hux quickly shut down the fear, the blind panic, the very reasonable part of his mind that began pointing out the reality of the situation.

 

Six people trapped in a small metal box, floating through the abyss.

 

“Some kind of… massive EMP?” whispered Lieutenant Cles, though it was starting to edge toward a whimper of terror.

 

“Sound off,” said Hux. “Colonel Gaccli?”

 

“Present. Unharmed.”

 

“Good. Major Lupal?”

 

“Present. Banged my head on the floor but I think It’s just bruised.”

 

“Continue to monitor for concussive symptoms. Lieutenant Cles?”

 

“Present. I think my arm got jostled out of place.” Hux could hear the cybernetic arm whirring uselessly.

 

“Is there anything we can do for it?”

 

“Not without light. I think there’s a low power-” the whirring stopped. “Ah. Found it.”

 

“Alright.” Hux cleared his throat and put on his speech-giving voice. “Lieutenant Sre!” He shouted. “Can you hear me?”

 

There was no response.

 

“Lieutenant Sre!” Hux tried again.

 

“Maybe…” Gaccli said softly. “Maybe there’s a backup power supply? Or… or maybe I can reach the _Finalizer_ … “

 

The transparisteel window at the front of the cockpit let in just enough starlight that Hux’s eyes were beginning to see shapes of things around him, the control panel and Gaccli huddled above the captain’s chair, clicking at different buttons and dials.

 

“ _Finalizer,_ this is _HT Centralia,_  do you copy?”

 

All that could be heard was the rush of precious air in and out of lungs.

 

Gaccli’s hands were shaking again as he desperately flipped switches on and off, tried to press for some kind of signal. “ _Finalizer_ , this is the freighter _HT Centralia._  We have First Order Officers on board and we have lost engine power. We...we’ve lost all power. Do you copy, _Finalizer?_ ”

 

There was no hum of electricity or plasma, no life left in the ship. No glow from the control panel. Hux’s eyes were beginning to adjust to see the fear on the other’s faces.

 

“Mayday, mayday!” Gaccli’s voice was shaking, now. “Can anyone hear me? We have wounded on board and have lost all power! This is the _HT Centralia_ -”

 

“We’re going to die out here, aren’t we?”

 

Hux couldn’t tell who whispered those words. He was too busy doing some rapid math in his head. With the life support systems down, they had a limited supply of air. The ship was roughly fifty-four meters in length and about as wide. The crew and passenger areas had ceilings of about two-point-five meters in height, with the cargo bays had ceilings about five-point-five. So average that out to four meters. That equaled eleven thousand six hundred and sixty-four cubic meters of breathable air give or take a couple hundred. How long could six people live with eleven and a half thousand cubic meters of air?

 

 _Think_ , Hux. The oxygen levels on the ship should be at standard percentage, which was twenty percent oxygen. That reduced the amount of vital oxygen in the air to only two thousand three hundred thirty two cubic meters. The average human being needs point-fifty-five cubic meters of pure oxygen per day, multiplied by six…

 

They had roughly one hundred seventeen days of breathable air on the ship. They would starve or freeze long before they suffocated. What a relief.

 

Just as Hux came to that conclusion, the ship gave another shudder, and a scant few emergency light panels flickered on, the sickly green glow barely managing to do more than outline dark shapes, and the gravity turned back on, sending them all to the floor once again. He felt the people around him give a small sigh as they got to their feet. At least they wouldn’t die in complete darkness.

 

“Colonel Gaccli,” Hux said. “Let Lupal take over transmission attempts.” If Gaccli continued like that, he would work himself into a blind panic. Hux had to stay calm, give orders. Even if he was just as afraid as the rest of them, they needed him. He could not show any weakness. “Cles, you go find Sre. If she is hurt, take her to the captain’s cabin. There’s a spare medkit in there. That will be our ‘base’, so to speak. Gaccli, I need you to inventory the emergency rations and move them to base.” Counting things should help calm his mind. “And I… will check on Lord Ren.” Hux met each of their eyes in turn. There was… less panic. Good. “Move out.”

 

“Sir!” They all saluted him and moved to complete their assignments. They could get through this.

 

Hux walked carefully down the hall, one hand on the wall to guide him. The emergency lights did little but outline the darkness, but at least they made it so navigation around the ship was possible. It seemed that in emergency mode, all of the ship’s automatic doors were set to stay open, probably for safety reasons. So no one would be trapped with no way to open a door with no power. The practicality did little to keep Hux’s imagination from spinning into hyperdrive, imagining all sorts of ominous, malformed creatures lurking in every gaping black doorway.

 

Of course, Hux reminded himself, the most ominous, malformed creature on the ship was the one Hux was trying to find. This did little to ease his mind.

 

 _Maybe_ his thoughts said instead _you can’t see anything through those doors because there is nothing. There is only a void. You will step through, and you will vanish forever, swallowed into non-existence._

 

At the threshold to the room Kylo Ren should have been in, Hux hesitated. He could see nothing. Perhaps there was nothing within…

 

“Ren?”

 

“Hello, again.”

 

Or perhaps there was less than nothing.

 

“It’s dark in there. I can’t see you,” Hux said.

 

Ren’s laugh was darker than the room. “I noticed. Why is that?”

 

“We were hit by some kind of EMP, perhaps something else as well.” A mere electromagnetic pulse wouldn’t have rocked the ship so violently before taking out the power, would it? “There’s no telling what damage the ship has sustained.” A thought came to Hux. A terrible, horrifying thought. He put it away for later. Hopefully Ren hadn’t seen it.

 

“Allow me,” Ren said, and took a deep breath. “This is a HT-2200 medium freighter. Slightly modified. Someone added a 1L10 drive system. Rather poorly, though. The workmanship is sloppy on the modification. Someone more competent must have added the pulse blasters. Those feel solid enough. The ship was being used for smuggling. There’s twenty kilos of alchemilla rust-powder under the floor of cargo bay three. I can feel some cosmetic damage to the hull, but the the main problems are a puncture in the reactor line on the engine and the complete shutdown of the power generator. The puncture feels like it’s been patched, but the patch could easily fail if the engine starts up again. Not that it can, with the power completely dark like this. Only the emergency reionization power converters are online, and they aren’t built to supply more than a few standard days of power. Even if we re-diverted the power from them, it wouldn’t be enough to restart either the power generator or the engine, and the attempt would probably kill all five crew members. _I_ might survive it, but-”

 

“There’s four officers on board,” Hux interrupted. “Or were you including me?”

 

Ren’s silence was insulting.

 

“General!”

 

Hux’s attention was pulled back out into the corridor. He could just make out Major Lupal’s features. “Sir,” she said. “You might want to come and take a look at this.”

 

“Yes,” hissed Ren’s voice from the darkness. “Run along, _General_.”

 

Hux didn’t bother acknowledging Ren’s behavior. The man had always been unstable. He’d seemed uncharacteristically quiet, though. Perhaps even in Ren’s dysfunctional brain he could feel the need to remain calm. The whole encounter itself left a bad taste in Hux’s mouth. Ren had felt less human than he ever had before.

 

Maybe… just maybe… Ren hadn’t been in the room at all. Maybe he had been somewhere else, feeding his voice right into Hux’s head, slithering around between synapses.

 

The cockpit was the brightest place on the entire ship, now, flooded as it was in starlight. The three other officers were crowded together, practically in each other’s laps, their noses nearly pressed against the window as they watch in rapt attention something Hux could not see.

 

“What is it?” He asked. No one answered, but Lieutenant Sre, who looked thankfully unharmed, beckoned him to join them.

 

Hux and Lupal stepped into the small space left, and Hux felt his breath leave him.

 

There was something out there. It drifted, sometimes slow, sometimes lightning-quick. It could only be perceived as a shadow, a temporary dimming of light from distant worlds, but it rippled, undulating like a living thing. There was no pattern to its movements, no order, caressing across their line of sight forward and back, up and down, slantways and sideways and eerie. At moments it was so slow it seemed to have vanished, but then it would speed up without rhythm, without meaning.

 

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” whispered Cles. “What is it?”

 

There was no response to him for a few minutes until, very quietly, Sre began to speak.

 

“When I was a little girl on Corellia, sometimes I would sneak out to listen to old star-pilots talk at the pub. They would trade wild stories of their adventures, but sometimes they would be solemn and whisper about things they had seen in the vast dark at the edge of the galaxy.

 

“There are things out there, they would say, that swim through dark matter and vacuum. Mindless and too boundless to be understood by simple beings of matter. All you could do was try not to look at them for too long, don’t think about them. And hope that they do not see you. If you tried to understand them, to really see them, it could leave you mad, trying to comprehend something not meant to be understood.

 

“Maybe you could try to find a sky so full of stars it will blind you again, they said. Only…  no sky can blind you now. Even with all that brightsome magic up there, your eye no longer lingers on the light, no longer traces constellations. You care only about the darkness and you watch it for hours, for days, maybe even for years. You try to believe you're some kind of sentinel, as if just by looking you could actually keep it all at bay. It gets so bad you’re afraid to look away, you’re afraid to sleep.

 

“And then the Nightmares begin.”

  
  


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Look behind you. _I said look behind you._

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


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Hux wished he could tell what time it was, or how much time had passed. The emergency system on the ship had deemed such things frivolous, however. He had slept, finally, after organizing everyone into shifts. Cles would take the first watch, then Sre, then Lupal, Gaccli, and then Hux. It made sense to organize it by seniority, and Hux made it clear that he should be alerted if anything were to change about their situation, if power returned or the _Finalizer_ contacted them or, heaven forbid, something else went wrong.

 

It took him a while, and he had to eat something first, to settle his stomach, but Hux was at last able to sleep. How long had it been? How many hours, days, since he had stood on the grand stage of Starkiller and shook his fist at the sky and yelled at the stars that he was more powerful than they, that he could pull them down and wring them dry and render them into nothing but dust.

 

What a fool he had been. The stars did not care what one man shouted at them, no matter how much he believed his own words.

 

He woke, and wandered the ship. He took his boots off first, the clamor they made when he walked seemed obscene in this deep, muted chasm they had sunk into. He made himself eat something. He crept up behind Major Lupal where she sat in the cockpit, alert on her watch, gazing out into space where that sinuous shadow still danced in a maddening oscillation. She did not notice him, and he snuck away like a thief when he saw her wiping tears away from her eyes.

 

Taking a deep breath, Hux decided he needed to look in on Ren again. If only to see if the Knight had bled out, yet.

 

But as Hux made his careful way down that stretching hallway, past those gaping doors into insanity, he saw something on the ground. It was hard to see much of anything, but Hux’s eyes were beginning to gain a sensitivity to even the slightest visual information.

 

In front of the door to Ren’s room, someone was sitting on the floor across the hall, their legs stretched out in front of them, or as far as they would go, in the narrow space. Ren’s door was closed. Hux hadn’t put the information in his mind together like he should have. He should have realized sooner than this… that on a ship with no power, Ren, with _his_ power, was the only person who could close or open any doors.

 

Hux was near enough now to see who it was in the hall. Lieutenant Shearn Cles stared unseeing at the closed door before him, his eyes glassy with death. In the greenish light, Hux could only barely make out the ring of black bruises around the man’s crushed neck.

 

Closing his eyes, Hux took several deep breaths. He would not panic. He would not rage. He would not…

 

But the darkness and the silence had been scraping at the strings holding Hux together with razor claws for too many hours, days. And before that the fire and snow of Starkiller, and before that years upon endless years of organizing and planning and cutting his hours of sleep shorter and shorter and ignoring the med staff’s suggestions and dealing with an impulsive child with the power to kill with a thought and before that-

  


 

 

 

“Ren,” said Hux. “Open the door.”

  


 

 

 

Dead silence.

  


 

 

 

“Ren,” Hux said just a little bit louder. “Open the door.”

  


 

 

“ _O_ _pen the door._ ”

  


 

 

That was Ren’s voice, just on the other side of the door. Mocking him.

  


 

 

 

 

 

“Open the door, Ren!”

  


“ _Open the door, Ben!"_

  


 

 

 

 

 

That voice was different, higher. It made the hair at the back of his neck stand on end. It still mostly sounded like Ren, but…

  


Hux forced himself to breathe, to put every shred of command left in his body into his words. “Lord Ren, you will open this door immediately.”

 

 

 

 

_Open the door. Open the door. Open the door._

  


 

 

 

“You want the door open?”

  


“Yes,” Hus hissed. “Would you like me to submit a formal request? Or perhaps you would respond to a note written in blood. You seem to enjoy such dramatics.”

 

With a grinding scrape, metal against metal, the door slid half-way open, and the serpentine form of Kylo Ren turned sideways to slip into the shade-light. His eyes were like great pits, dark holes that light could not escape from. The burn on his face was nearly gone, only the shape of it left slashed across his features in a different color than the rest of his skin. His shoulder looked nearly healed, as well, and the bandage around his abdomen had been discarded, leaving only a ragged hole in the fabric through which mottled skin could be glimpsed.

 

“Why was the door closed?” Hux questioned, crossing his arms, almost as if he could brace himself against the man before him.

 

Ren tilted his head, something bird-like in the sudden movement. “I was in a healing trance, General,” he said, his voice even and calm. “Someone tried to disturb me, so I closed the door.”

 

“I see,” said Hux. “Well, even if you feel _disturbed_ , Ren, you can’t just _murder my officers!"_

 

Ren leaned to one side to look down at Cles’ sad corpse, then swung his lightless eyes back to Hux. Even in the dimness, Hux could have sworn Ren was almost smiling.

 

“Hmm…” was the Knight’s only response.

 

A nocturnal rage was boiling in Hux, climbing its way up through his guts, up his throat, tearing at his tongue and eyes. “I have _had_ it with you, Ren,” Hux snarled. “I am _this close_ to throwing you out the airlock, Snoke’s orders be damned.”

 

Ren eyes lit up with a terrible light at last. “Do it,” he whispered.

 

“What?”

 

“Do it. Throw me out the airlock. I won’t fight you. I’ll come willingly.” He smiled for real. “Send me out into the void. Let the cold sap away at my flesh. My eyes will boil out of my head from the radiation, my bones will-”

 

“You’re mad!” Hux snapped.

 

Ren _laughed._  “Oh, _good,_ ” he said. “I was starting to worry that this was _real_.”

 

Footsteps. Clanging up the hallway. Ren flinched away, reclusive beast he was, nearly animalistic. “I heard shouting,” said Lupal. “What’s going… Oh… Oh my…”

 

“Lupal,” Hux said calmly. “Please return to your post. There is nothing you can do, here.”

 

Another set of approaching steps. A sharp cry of anguish. “Shearn! No!” There was Lieutenant Sre, collapsing to her knees next to Cles’ cold form. She reached out, her hands tenderly brushing his hair back from his face. “Please, no…” she whispered.

 

Hux grabbed Ren’s wrist and dragged him down the hall. True to what he said earlier, the Knight followed willingly, though a tremor ran through him when he slightly brushed up against Lupal. Hux briefly wondered how often Ren touched anyone without layers of fabric and metal to shield himself. Freak that he was, he probably hated it, even the slightest of touches. Hux’s fingers around his wrist must burn. The thought was pleasing.

 

They encountered Gaccli at a juncture, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

 

“Go help Lupal and Sre,” Hux snapped, and took Ren further into the ship.

 

When they were far enough from the others that Hux felt somewhat distanced, if only mentally. With no warning, Hux turned and swung his fist at the side of Ren’s head.

 

It had been a long time since he’d been in a fistfight, but Hux remembered how to throw a solid punch without hurting himself. His aim was dead-on, too, but Ren ducked just enough to take the blow closer to the crown of his head, away from his temple and ear. Still, the strike was true, and Ren had to catch himself on the wall to keep from falling.

 

“Lord Ren,” Hux said, tugging at the edge of his uniform jacket, undoing a few buttons at the top. “I realize that there is a vanishingly small list of things you hold sacred, and that the lives of others is not on that list.” He leaned forward slightly, and Ren pulled up his shoulders like he expected another blow. “So let me make this as clear and powerful to you as I possibly can. You will swear to me, right here, right now, that you will not kill any of my officers. Ever again. Swear it on the grave of your grandfather.”

 

Ren was still. A wraith all in black and pale skin translucent in the sickly glow of the emergency panels. After a lifetime, Hux saw Ren suck in a labored breath.

 

“I swear to you, General,” Ren said, slowly straightening. “On the grave of my grandfather. I will not kill any your officers.”

 

“Ever.”

 

“Ever? What if you _want_ me to?”

 

“General!” That was Lupal, her voice shaking somewhat as she approached down the hallway. “Gaccli wants to know what we… what he should do with Cles. Sir.”

 

Hux stepped around Ren to face Lupal. “I’ll be right there. We should give him a proper send-off. As for you, R-” Hux turned to face an empty hallway. Ren was gone.

 

Hux whirled back to Lupal. “Did you see where he went?”

 

Her eyes were wide. “Where who went, sir?”

 

*********************

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you see?

Do you see what it is you have done?

  
  


Some doors should not be opened.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But you were so _curious._ You wanted to see what would happen.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


 

 

_When is a door not a door?_

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*********************

 

Everything was unraveling. Hux could feel himself, every cell in his body, peeling apart, fraying at the atomic level.

 

He ordered that with the four of them left, none of them should go anywhere alone. Even trips to the ‘fresher could be done in pairs, Hux and Gaccli together and Lucal and Sre. Other than that, all four of them would stay in the captain’s cabin, their base of relative safety, until power returned or the _Finalizer_ could find them.

 

If Ren decided to attack them, there would be little safety in numbers.

 

It made Hux feel better, though.

 

Reason and logic were breaking down.

 

Gaccli, Lucal, and Sre. None of them remembered Kylo Ren. The name was met with blank stares. He must have wiped their memories of him, Hux told himself. It wasn’t as if Hux was going mad, hallucinating a tall, threatening nightmare figure that whispered dreadful things. Earlier, lifetimes ago, Cles had asked about how Ren was doing, right? That had happened. Ren was real.

 

Unless Hux had dreamed up that conversation, as well.

 

He couldn’t seem to remember anymore. The four of them had been on this ship for an eternity. The destruction of Starkiller had wiped out all sentient life in the galaxy. There was no one alive on the _Finalizer_ to come and save them.

 

There was no _Finalizer._ There was no Starkiller.

 

There was nothing outside these metal walls.

 

The ship was the world.

 

The ship was a cave, and outside the cave was only tiny sparks of light. The stars were nothing, only the last flickering gasps of a dying reality.

 

There had never been another reality. Only the strange dreams of a madman.

 

Hux buttoned his jacket back up. It was getting cold.

 

“Lupal,” said Sre. “Come with me.”

 

“Alright.”

 

The two women stood and disappeared through the doorway. The last remnants of Hux wanted to chastise them for such slackness with regulation and formality. As if it still mattered. The thought made him chuckle.

 

“What’s so funny?” said Gaccli.

 

Hux shrugged against the bunk he leaned on. “I don’t know. Everything, maybe.”

 

Hux remembered being worried about time. How foolish, to spend so much _time_ worrying about _time._ Time wasn’t even real. It was just another way of measuring distance.

 

Gaccli opened another ration and ate it. They didn’t taste like anything. Hux had caught himself contemplating licking his own skin, just to see what it would taste like. Maybe it would actually taste like something other than nothingness.

 

Time was not real, but some circadian clock in Hux’s head still ticked away. “How long has it been since Sre and Lupal left?”

 

Gaccli was contemplating a packet of water. “I don’t know. Can’t tell.”

 

Hux felt his skin starting to itch. A sense of _wrongness,_  of something he couldn’t figure out in all the broken-down machinery of his mind and thoughts. He wanted to go look for the women. He wanted to stay here. He wanted to take Gaccli with him. He wanted to find Ren and sink his teeth into the man’s throat, feasting on his life-blood and turning Ren into nothing more than so much dead meat. Nothing but bone and tendon and muscle and fat, ripped apart, painted across the walls of this metal hell. Perhaps spelling out the words “Kylo Ren was here and now he is not”.

 

“I’m going to go look for them,” Hux said.

 

“Alone?” Gaccli said. “I thought you said-”

 

“Damn what I said!” shouted Hux. His voice sounded strange. He couldn’t yell very loudly, after all this subdued whispering. “It doesn’t matter if we’re together or apart! There is nothing here that can possibly protect us! Not on this ship, and not out there!” Hux gestured wildly at the entire universe. “When you’re dead, you’re dead. That’s it. There’s nothing you can do. And we’re already dead.”

 

Gaccli fell silent. Hux ran a hand through his hair. It had lost all semblance of togetherness centuries ago.

 

“Goodbye, Gaccli,” Hux said. Then he turned and walked through the door into absolute darkness.

  


*********************

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


 

You think yourself safe?

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


 

 

 

Do you really think that little glowing screen can _protect_ you from what you have done?

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


 

 

 

_You chose this._

  


**You opened the door.**

  


_This is your fault._

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


 

 

 

 

 

*********************

  


Hux had memorized every inch of the ship lifetimes ago, but he couldn’t remember if it had a name.

 

He wondered if it was important.

 

Perhaps God doesn’t really care if you know his name.

 

Hux couldn’t remember taking off his socks, either, but he must have, at some point, because his feet were bare, durasteel floor cold against his skin. His gloves were gone, too. Had he ever even had them? Were they real? Hux couldn’t remember them existing in the ship. A flash of memory came to him. Snow. Blinding white he had to shield his eyes against, even though he was only remembering. It was breath-taking, remembering so much white.

 

He peeled the gloves off and threw them in the snow. Because he had to _feel._  Feel what? Feel for Ren, feel the beat of his life in his neck, in his wrists, below his ribs. The shadow man had taken his gloves.

 

There was a sound. A sound that Hux could hear with his physical ears, but his mind couldn’t make sense of. But he could follow it, the black thread trail leading him around two corners before he found the source of the sound. It was quiet laughter.

 

The emergency light flickered. Ren stood directly beneath it, his shoulders trembling.

 

“Kylo?” said Hux, his voice quieter than he had meant.

 

Ren was laughing, the light sending sharp shadows careening against the walls.

 

“Kylo.” Hux tried again to make himself heard and took a step forward. Ren wasn’t laughing, he realized. He was crying.

 

“Kylo Ren.”

 

The crying stopped, choked off and swallowed down a dry throat. “Is that who I am?” Ren’s voice sounded low, hollow. “There was a door…”

 

Hux stole another step. “A door?”

 

“Yes…” Ren shifted, his eyes picking up and fracturing little bits of light. “Watch out for the gap in the door. It leads somewhere… “

 

A scream, a woman’s scream, careened down around Hux, sinking into his skull. He spun around, trying to see in the endless mind-numbing dimness, but whoever it was could not be seen. And when Hux turned back, Ren was gone.

 

The ship was not large. The world was not large enough to really keep two people apart. It only took three or four turns around corners for Hux to run into Lupal. Her face was frightened, and her hands were covered in darkness. Until he touched her hands, Hux didn’t realize that it was blood.

 

“In the cargo bay,” she whimpered. “In the cargo bay. I didn’t know he was there… “

 

Dread sank its talons into Hux’s chest. He left Lupal behind him, her blood-soaked hands shaking in the malfunctioning light. Two corners, one gaping pit of gloom. The open door to the first cargo bay. He could search them methodically for what had happened.

 

He didn’t need to. White bones were laid out on the floor of the first cargo bay. No, not white bones. The white armor of a stormtrooper. The helmet was gone. Only a fair-haired man was left, his throat slashed and leaking black onto the floor. His skin was still warm when Hux tilted his head to find the trooper’s designation. WS-0302.

 

“Poor sod,” Hux whispered. Had he been a stowaway? Trying to escape Starkiller on this ill-fated ship?

 

Had he startled Lupal, and she merely defended herself?

 

That wound was deep. The edges smooth. Where was the weapon Lupal had used? Did she still have it with her?

 

A sharp hysteria cascaded through Hux’s entire body. Lupal had been well-known among Starkiller officers for being excellent at self-defence, grappling and striking and pinning her opponents with ease. Lieutenant Cles, with his arm out of commission, would have been easy for her to subdue. On a derelict ship, such a person could easily fashion some sort of sharp-edged, primitive method of cutting up an unprepared young stormtrooper.

 

Keeping everyone together accomplished very little against Ren, but it had been protecting them from Lupal.

 

It didn’t take Hux very long at all to find Lieutenant Sre near the ‘fresher, her eyes stabbed out and blood streaked across her face.

 

Hux was painfully aware of the fact that he was unarmed. There were no blasters on board. But Lupal had found a cutting edge. Perhaps Hux could find something as well.

 

Gaccli was most likely already dead, Hux told himself. There was no helping him now. Hux could only do what he could to save himself. Save himself from a quick death to return to the long, slow, dark death. With a little effort, Hux managed to pry a connector strip of durasteel from a corner of the bulkhead near the cockpit. It was about half a meter long and dull, but it was better than his bare hands. Even that blunt edge could do some damage if swung hard enough.

 

Too bad Ren had disappeared. The demon in black didn’t even need hands to be deadly.

 

“I’m here, General.”

 

Hux stiffened. His thoughts had summoned the hellion.

 

“Ren,” Hux said. “How nice of you to show up.”

 

“You made me promise not to kill,” murmured Ren, his tall silhouette barely perceptible in the shadowy corner he lurked in. “But now… Do you want me to kill her?”

 

Hux tried to see what expression Ren’s face held, but he could see nothing. “Stay close to me.”

 

“As you wish.”

 

“Don’t let her see you.”

 

“She will not know I am there unless I want her to.”

 

“Do nothing until I tell you to.”

 

“Yes, sir.”

 

Hux frowned. “So _now_ you’re good at following orders?”

 

Ren’s quiet laugh prickled against Hux’s skin, but he didn’t say anything.

 

So it was, with the shadow of a nightmare at his back, Hux made his way through the ship, searching for the rogue officer.

 

It didn’t take long, not with Ren breathing directions down his neck. Hux heard the meaty sound of flesh being stabbed over and over before they turned the corner into the captain’s cabin.

 

“So good of you to join us, Hux,” said Lupal, sinking a jagged knife into Gaccli’s body again.

 

“ _Hux._ ”

 

Hux ignored Ren’s whisper. If the Knight had something significant to say, he would say it. Right?

 

“Major Lupal,” Hux said, trying to remember what it was like to command. “Drop your weapon and stand down.”

 

Lupal giggled, a surprisingly girlish sound. “You should die next, Hux. You deserve it.”

 

“ _General Hux."_

 

Still, Ren was just whispering his name. Over and over. A mantra.

 

“Major Nov Lupal, I order you to drop your weapon and stand down.”

 

“Lupal lifted the knife to examine it closely. “You don’t deserve to live, Hux. None of us do. We have the blood of billions on our heads.”

 

“Major Lupal, this is your final warning,” Hux said. “Drop your weapon and stand down or you will die.”

 

“But you,” she grinned. “You gave the order, you built the Starkiller, and you should answer for every life lost.”

 

Hux took a deep breath. “Ren.”

 

“ _Forgive me, grandfather. There is a monster, here._ ”

 

Ren was little more than a vertical flicker of dark, the absence of light sweeping across Hux’s vision. Lupal let out a slight gasp, surprised by the length of piping that had suddenly sprouted from her chest. Her eyes, wide, she tried to lift her hands, tried to pull it out, but her hands were too slick with Gaccli’s blood, her grip was too weak. Slowly, she sank down to her knees, and Ren pulled the pipe free of her.

 

“I just wanted…” she whispered, and then closed her eyes, her body curled over top of Gaccli.

 

The pipe clanged as it fell to the floor and rolled into the expanding dark pool of blood. Ren staggered back until he could sink down along the wall until he was sitting next to Hux. Hux was shaking, and so was Ren. Badly. Hux let himself sit, as well. Side by side with Ren, the air thick with the smell of death.

 

“That felt real,” breathed Ren. “I… “ Ren raised a hand to wipe at his face. Maybe he’d gotten blood on himself. Hux couldn’t tell. “I’ve never… _killed_ anyone before.”

 

Hux couldn’t see the expression on his own face, but he almost wished he could have, in that moment. It probably would have made him laugh. “Is that your sorry attempt at a joke?”

 

Ren turned his head a bit towards Hux. “Um… no?”

 

Hux heaved a deep sigh. He was stranded alone on a ship with several corpses and a magical lunatic. “Ren,” he said quietly. “Your kill count is in the triple digits. And those are just the ones I have official record of.”

 

Ren was quiet for a moment. “Oh.” There was some minutes of stillness, then Ren shifted his shoulders a little closer to Hux. “Have you ever heard of the Mason Labyrinth Theory?”

 

Hux stared at Ren. “You… want to talk about sub-atomic particle physics?”

 

Ren didn’t seem to hear him. Or was just ignoring him. “Stripped down to the basics, the theory is that there are many different… facets of reality. Or timelines, or dimensions. It depends on what translation you’re reading.” Ren settled his elbows on his knees. “I’d heard of the theory before, and even heard of some researchers looking at different ways of measuring these different… wavelengths?

 

“I… I was having a difficult time. I had been… struggling with myself. Ever since my mother was assassinated. Luke was trying to help me. He was… leading me through some meditations. I was deep in the Force, my mind wandering far… and… “ The man took a deep breath, and his voice sounded more solid, less brittle and fractured. “I… found a door. It was already open. I just wanted to look, to see what was on the other side, but something pulled me all the way through. When I opened my eyes, you were there with me, and you told me I was safe, and I believed you.”

 

There was no sound between his words. Hux remembered once, during his training, being subjected to a perfectly soundproof room while blindfolded for an hour. He’d started to hallucinate after only fifteen minutes. This silence, with the man who looked like Kylo Ren next to him, was worse.

 

“Do you think,” Hux said quietly, not really meaning to speak aloud but needing to cover up the silence. “That in all of those billions of other realities, there could be one where you and I are friends?”

 

Ren, it was difficult to think of him as anything else, turned and looked at him. It was frustrating, really, the fact that Hux had not yet adapted to that unnerving stare. Part of him wished for the mask again. He could deal with the mask.

 

“General Hux,” Ren said. Slowly, as if tasting every syllable. “I know your name well. You are the one who gave the order for my mother’s death.” Hux’s blood ran cold. “That’s one of the things that I was trying to deal with, in my meditations: the imaginings of what I would do if I ever found you, if i were alone with you and there was no way for anyone to ever know what I did to you…”

 

Finally, Ren looked away, his breathing uneven. Hux was finding his own breath hard to control.

 

“Forgive me,” Ren whispered. “Even if… even if you have done terrible things in your life, you are not _him_. His sins are not on your head and even if they were…” Ren wiped at his face again, his voice growing thick. “I… I already killed someone, here. It… “ He shuddered. “I felt her die, through the Force. If Kylo Ren has killed as many as you say, has felt their lives flicker out with his own hands, he truly is monstrous.”

 

Hux felt himself smile. He wondered if Ren could see it, even in this overwhelming dark where only the barest of shadows could be seen. “So this is how I die,” he said. “Floating in space next to a man who is neither friend nor enemy.”

 

Ren let out a dark chuckle. “Do you have a name besides Hux? Or is General your first name and I’ve been very mislead?”

 

That actually got Hux to laugh a little bit himself. “Aodh,” he answered. “Don’t try to pronounce it. You’ll just mangle it.”

 

“Nice to meet you, Aodh.” He said the name flawlessly. “I’m Ben.”

 

“I know. Ben Solo.”

 

Ben was staring at him again. “You… you already knew my name?”

 

“Well, before all this mess you, or, the other you, threatened me in very colorful terms if I were to ever speak it aloud, so…” Hux shrugged. “I like my organs where they are at.”

 

Time was impossible to measure in any sort of objective way. But Ren took three slow breaths before he spoke again. “I can fix the ship,” he said slowly. “I can patch the engine leak. I made sure it would be an easy fix when I made it.” Hux sighed and opened his mouth. “No,” Ren stopped him. “I didn’t do the rest, just the engine leak. I… was afraid. I still am. Snoke frightens me. If you take me to him…”

 

“Ben,” Hux said. “I won’t take you to Snoke.”

 

Ben Solo let out a sigh of relief. “And I can reroute the power to jump-start the comm. We can flag down this _Finalizer_ of yours to come and get us.”

 

“You seem very confident in your abilities.”

 

Ben shrugged. “When you regularly fly on the _Falcon_ you get really good at fixing Corellian freighters.”

 

Ben told him that it was only two standard hours later that the _Finalizer’s_ tractor beam latched on, dragged them at last into the hangar. When the doors opened at last, General Hux stepped onto the deck with shaking knees, but his head was held high, and he was already giving orders to crew, ignoring the shadow of Ben Solo slinking to one side to watch him in silence.

 

Seventeen hours later, an escape pod jettisoned without permission, with someone who looked very much like Kylo Ren the only living thing on board. Of course, Hux did everything in his power to try to reclaim his wayward assignment. He couldn’t possibly do less.

  


*********************

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


 

 

 

 

 

Did you look behind you?

 

Earlier, when I told you to?

 

 

 

Well

 

_It’s far too late now._

 

_No._

 

_Don’t look._

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Don’t let your eyes stray beyond the perimeter of the screen.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s far too late.

  


_It’s already there._

  


You can feel it, can’t you?

 

_Just behind your head._

 

_Don’t turn around._

 

_Not when you feel the air shift on the back of your neck._

 

Not when you hear the door creak.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


You’re the one to blame.

 

You must live with what you have done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
_You opened the door._

**Author's Note:**

> You're just going to leave the door open like that?
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  


End file.
